New bruises to heal old wounds
by meadow of daisies
Summary: Scarlett takes the reins, as always, and brings Rhett back from Belle's after that night.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Scarlett was beyond mad, she was almost foaming at the mouth. Her feet were crushing the dark pink carpet of her bedroom, her hands in fists, her nails breaking the skin of her palms. Although she didn't have her corset on, her lungs were burning. She opened her mouth to pull some air in because, somehow, breathing normally was impossible.

"That's where the bastard is" she was thinking. "He ran away, he ran to his whore, the miserable, utter bastard".

She wanted to scream, wanted to claw at the drapes, the covers of her bed, she wanted to get on her knees and scratch the plush carpet, the floors underneath it, the furniture. She wanted to break every piece of china, every mirror, every window of the house. This house he had build for her. Did he think she cared? She had her own money, she could build another house, even grander. She wanted to rip out the stuffing from the chairs and the couches and see it stretching out like the intestines of that badly wounded soldier they had to nurse during the war. Well, Melly did. Scarlett ran away from the room and almost threw up in a clean basinet in the hallway of the hospital.

She wanted…

"I know" she suddenly thought, "I'll kill him!"

"And his whore, while I'm at it."

And suddenly her breathing returned to normal and she rang for Prissy. The girl couldn't even look her in the eye as she entered the room.

"Take out my green velvet riding suit", Scarlett said, and she had such a mad look on her face that the girl told the other servants, a few days afterwards, after the events unfurled, that she was sure in that very moment life in the Butler house as she knew it was going to end.

"Tell Pork to saddle my horse, I don't have time to wait for the carriage", she told Prissy in voice so changed that the girl wondered for a second if not a bad spirit, like the ones she heard the reverend in church talk about, was possessing her mistress.

After a fashion, a stone faced Scarlett was riding the streets of Atlanta, looking as she had just stepped out of the fashion plates of the new Harper's Bazar. Maybelle Picard, walking on the side of the road, lifted her head and sighted, seeing the pretty clothes Scarlett was wearing. Again. And, although Scarlett's taste verged on the extreme at times, truth to be told, this riding habit was as classy as one could be, made of dark green velvet, with small gold buttons and the prettiest beige lace collar, high on the neck, making her green eyes pop and her waist look as tiny as a sixteen years old. And that little top hat, tipped to the front just so, with the cutest veil, speckled with tiny black dots, was to die for.

Maybelle, who had never had such a tiny waist, not even as a young girl, courtesy of her mother, the hefty and pious Mrs. Merriwether, sighted again.

Mrs. Merriwether herself elbowed her.

"Heathens", she murmured.

"Yes, mother", answered Maybelle quickly.

Mrs. Butler nodded coldly in their direction, looking like a queen on top of her very big horse, and then looked forward with eyes so dismissive, Mrs. Merrywether swore to herself then and there never to talk to her again.

Scarlett was hot underneath her two voluminous petticoats, and the buttons of the black cotton breeches every respectable woman wore beneath her riding habit, in the spirit of preserving modesty in case you were unlucky enough to get thrown of your horse, were leaving imprints on the inside of her calves. She had taken a riding crop with her, God knows why, everyone knew crops were made for riding in the country, not on the crowded streets of Atlanta, but looking at it, all shiny and new, she smiled. She knew exactly on whose hide the crop was going to land.

What happened two nights ago? What had happened? Something did, and Scarlett's mind went around in circles trying to comprehend something that continued to escape her. He had hurt her. Well, a little. She had the imprint of his fingers around her wrists and a few…

"…bites? I don't remember him using his teeth" on the white skin of her bosom. And she enjoyed it. And then he told her how he loved her, and how beautiful she was, and how he had wanted her for years, and how she was his and his alone, and touched her in some places she couldn't even think about without almost feeling faint, and moved above her in a way that made her bite the pillow so her scream wouldn't wake the children, and then she felt like she was falling in the most delightful way, as if beneath her fluffy clouds were waiting to catch her. But no, Rhett's hands were holding her and his fingers were caressing her back and when she opened her eyes, she saw Rhett's eyes looking at her with something akin to desperation and surprise… And then he started moving again, and she had the vague impression an earthquake was shaking the house, and she fell again, harder.

"Was that only in my mind?", she wondered.

She had fallen asleep in his arms, and he woke her at some point, and the whole dance began anew, with even better results. The next morning, alone in her bed, and convinced that Rhett was downstairs, eating with the children and preparing to bring her a tray with her breakfast, she realised she was happy. Happy as she had not been in years. The commotions of last night had been…welcomed? Nice? Whatever words were used to describe her mood on that beautiful spring morning, after such a night, were not in the vocabulary of a proper lady. And she giggled and felt as naughty as she did as a child, when she put jam in Gerald slippers, on a dare by the Tarleton twins.

Rhett was going to open the door, make some inappropriate joke about their unorthodox marriage and she was going to explain that the mill thing was a big misunderstanding, and tonight she was going to meet him in the hallway with her wrapper loosely tied and the kissing and staring in each others eyes and all the unmentionable things that happen behind the closed doors of the bedroom were going to happen again. And tomorrow she would wake up happy again. It was that simple.

Well, no. It did not happen like that. Everything went downhill afterwards. Rhett was not at home, did not come back for two nights, Mammy was looking at her strangely, and whatever hopes she had, hopes she could not formulate in words in her mind or understand in her heart, were gone.

And now he was going to pay.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

She knew the ornate building that housed Miss Watling, although she had never been here before. It was the biggest whorehouse in town, and the pink and white balconies and wooden chubby angels carved above the door were a dead giveaway.

Scarlett's mood was murderous. The ferocity that had been in her heart an hour ago was almost gone, but still there, under a thin veil of self control. What she felt most now was hate.

Hate that he had abandoned her like this, and she somehow realised on her way here, that this was not the first time. All his comings and goings during the war, when he never told her when he left and when he would be back, that strange night in New Orleans when he almost broke down the door on his quest to be away from her, most of the evenings of their married life, when he tipped his hat in her direction and got out of the house, as if that was the moment he had waited for the whole day, all his runnings away from her, running from what? She knew he didn't love her, but why marry her, if he was so determined to be away from her as much as possible?

And he always came back, never apologising or explaining, never treating her like the grown woman she was, always insulting and making fun of her, and buying her expensive gifts that he discarded in her hands as if he was giving a nickel to a beggar on the street.

Another thought came to mind: him, who had always encouraged her to do exactly as she liked , standing with Bonnie in his arms, sucking up to Mrs. Merriwether and whoever else was around to commiserate on poor Captain Butler, married to a woman who worked outside her home and managed people. He never respected her. Yes, that's what she wanted. His respect. She, who had kept so many people fed during the war, who had taken a handful of weak children and women back to Tara in Yankee infested roads (another dereliction of his), she who made sure that everyone, from silly Aunt Pitty to that coward Ashley, had a roof above their heads and food on the table. Ah, that miserable Ashley, looking fainthearted and pale, holding Melly's hand like a little boy. She didn't want to think of Ashley now but she knew, she just knew that she was going to make him pay somehow for making her feel weak all these years with his puzzling words and that sorrowful look in his eyes and his half hearted declarations of what? Love? Whatever that was it was not love, it was something else, something mixed with shame and a little bit of relief. Relief that he was not the one who had to live with her everyday. All her fantasies of being Ashley's wife were reduced now to one image. Her, holding his hand and leading him around like he was blind. Let Melanie do that, if he wanted her so. Only someone as kindhearted as Melanie would have the patience and the inclination to mop around a living ghost. Let them walk around like two poor, weak, grey mice!

And Melly, how could he do that to Melly? Whatever _that_ was, Scarlett did not know right now, but all the malignant thoughts she had sent in Melly's direction over the years had, anyway, disappeared from her mind in the last months. Somehow, in her muddled introspections, she saw herself as devoted as a friend as she could possibly be, and an easy mark for Ashley's longing, confusing looks. Scarlett's conscience could be terribly supple sometimes.

She deserved Rhett's respect and she knew she wanted to hurt him as much as she hurt every time she heard the door closing behind him, and pretended not to care. Like in that second she knew she was going to shoot the Yankee at Tara, a calm, decisive mood enveloped her. Let Melly think that was some impulse move from a scared woman. It wasn't. The moment she saw the Yankee in her mother's house and heard his rough voice she knew she was going to commit murder.

And she also knew that hurting Rhett's ego was impossible, so she settled for the next thing she could think of.

She was going to scratch his eyes out.

Getting off her horse, Scarlett squared her shoulders and prepared for battle.

The old man who was napping near the entrance barely opened his eyes when the door flew open. He had been with Miss Watling for years, since before she came to Atlanta and knew few came to a house of ill repute in the morning. Perhaps some young buck who had won at cards in another, cheaper establishment, and wanted to blow all his money on some expensive whore or some new girl looking for work. But then he took in this new appearance with interest. This one certainly did not look like she needed to work on her back.

Suddenly his blood ran cold, and he tried to make himself as little as possible on his old, wobbly chair near the door. Like all the freed slaves in Atlanta, who had decided to stay with their old masters, old Paris was terrified of Mrs. Butler. Hell, even the whites were terrified of her, with her brusque ways and witchy eyes. Luckily he didn't see her much, only when Miss Watling send him to town to run small errands, but even then he made sure to almost cower close to the nearest wall and look down if she was passing the street.

There was a young girl of maybe fourteen who was wiping glasses behind the bar. She opened her mouth and remained still as a statue. Not a peep came out. She didn't know who the woman was, but she didn't look too happy.

"Where's your mistress?" Scarlett asked, eyes throwing daggers. She looked around and thought the plush, dark surroundings look familiar for a second.

The girl screamed for Miss Watling without thinking.

Belle Watling was in her small office downstairs. Although her line of work passed mostly at night, she was an early riser.

The same as Scarlett, she was trying to make sense of some things, but she couldn't. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't understand what Rhett Butler wanted from life in general and his wife in particular.

She knew he was smartest man she had ever met, and his manners were impeccable with everyone from the cheapest whore to the most important politicians. She had seen that between the very walls of her establishment. She loved him dearly, as a friend and former lover and investor and protector and what else. Mostly as the ward of her illegitimate son. She remembered him, twenty years ago, when they first met, as the most good looking and entertaining young man she had ever seen. She hadn't slept with him in years, but she remembered with a sight those years when she did. The man was gifted in everything that had to do with pleasuring a woman.

Belle knew she was getting old. She was almost forty and her body was not what it used to be. Also, she had grown quite, if not fat, perhaps voluptuous. That was a word she knew from Rhett. She knew he didn't want to sleep with her anymore, and hadn't in years. The first time it happened, maybe ten years ago, she was so hurt, so very, very hurt, but she shut her mouth and decided that being able to entertain him with her sharp tongue was enough if he stayed around. And she also decided that she wasn't going to sleep with anyone else either. She had enough of rolling in the sheets for a lifetime. It was better if he saw her as a friend and not as silly woman, throwing herself at him. She didn't want his pity, although he saw him sometimes looking at her with some sort of misplaced kindness, and she knew he thought about how different she looked, compared with the young girl of twenty-two he had met in New Orleans.

So she made sure she had a plentiful amount of his favourite whisky and cigars and rowdy stories and his own bedroom in the house, decorated by him with her money as a gift for all his support over the years, and, most importantly, a string of clean, busty and blonde girls for his other appetites. Never black haired girls. Sometimes a creole with upturned breasts and very full lips. But from what the girls were saying, Rhett Butler had gotten lazy in the last years. Before meeting Scarlett, he was an insatiable animal, as she well remembered. Now he just sat on his back and closed his eyes, and, shame of shames for someone as used to feminine attention as he was, sometimes moaned out Scarlett's name during climax.

And two days ago he had come to the house at five thirty in the morning, drunk as hell, so drunk that he couldn't even utter a proper sentence, and put his head in her lap and cried, for God's sake, cried. She never thought Rhett Butler's eyes could produce tears.

The reason? He had slept with his wife. He forced her, he said.

Belle, surprisingly for her chosen profession and times, was what a century later would be called a feminist. She tried to take her girls best interest at heart, let them rest even if she knew that was a loss to her pursestrings, and never made the young homeless girls who appeared on her doorstep regularly work as anything else but house cleaners.

She had seen and felt too much suffering at the hands of men to have the need to make a quick buck from other women's tears. And she thought that women had it plenty bad as it was, either by being a whore on her knees or a well bred lady with a husband who drank and spent all his money on cards and whisky and bawdy houses. She welcomed the men all the same, but couldn't stop thinking of the wives waiting at home for them, believing their husbands in important meetings, while they were pinching bottoms and worse in her whorehouse. For a while she had felt superior, especially after she had become a madam, but now she felt nothing but sympathy for them, even when she saw then around town, lifting their noses at her sight. She knew how the husbands got home, inebriated and penniless, and she knew the wives had to turn a blind eye on everything and pretend they were happy and devoted, even when there were no money to buy shoes for the children because the head of the family decided he needed a fourth or fifth round of brandy last night. At least Belle was over feigning care about a man's satisfaction.

But Rhett Butler was not like that, and still he was. She knew he thought he loved Scarlett, but Belle couldn't for the life of her imagine why he treated her the way he did. She knew about how ruthless he was with her from his own mouth. And while she couldn't understand what made Scarlett so obsessed with Mr. Wilkes as Rhett said she was, she also couldn't understand why someone as good with women as Rhett was wasn't able to make that green eyed creature want him. Not love him, but at least want him.

Belle didn't like Scarlett one bit, but in some way respected her. She was a woman smart enough to own and manage two businesses, and had made the infamous Captain Butler fall for her without even trying. There was something to be respected right there, even if she was after his money. In other circumstances, and if different people had been involved, Belle would have sent quiet thoughts of appreciation to a woman who managed to catch such a prize as Rhett Butler. But she cared about Rhett, and wanted to see him happy in his marriage, as strange as that seemed even to her.

Two nights ago she had to listen to his sobs. He actually did what Belle had suggested when she heard he was going to get married, and really made love to his wife.

"Belle, give us a kiss", he said on that autumn night, "I'm getting married!" and then he slipped in a chair. Belle congratulated him with a knot in her throat. She was glad she had used all her tears a long time ago, for this was a moment when tears would have come to her in buckets.

"So", she said, "the great Rhett Butler really gets everything he wants in life." And then asked, because she was as hungry for happy endings as any other woman, and her situation was hopeless anyway, if he told her he loved her and if Scarlett admitted she loved him back.

"Ah", Rhett answered, "not quite. The black widow Hamilton-Kennedy had to be manipulated as shrewdly as she manipulates others. She admitted being quite fond of me after I dangled my millions over her rapacious pawns. And she reconfirmed loving Ashley Wilkes until breath leaves that lovely body of hers. She asked me if I loved her and I promised her I don't, and that, even if I did, I would never encumber her with my unwanted affections. " Seeing Belle's eyebrows tightening, he added: "In short, she's after my money. That's the only reason she accepted my proposal."

Belle was quite confused. "But Rhett," she started, "you have been the most dedicated bachelor ever. If you really want to get married, would it not be better to do it properly, and admit you love her? After all, you keep telling me how you know her so well. If you know her so well, you should have made her fall in love with you years ago. And, Rhett, not that I want to tell you what to do, but you always come here with these stories about how stupid she is and how you like to make fun of her. Are you sure you're not making a mistake? I understand you think you love her but I don't think you like her very much." She wanted to tell him that his kind of love for Scarlett would be strange to any woman, but she didn't have the nerve to.

The truth was that Belle had gotten quite bored with the whole Rhett-Scarlett situation in the last years. He was always coming to her to talk about Scarlett, about how greedy she was, how ignorant she was and brag about how entertaining it was for him to laugh at her. In the beginning, Belle had laughed with him, mostly because she had been jealous.

But then she started having this funny felling. She wasn't very smart either, hell, few people were if you compared then to Rhett. She was also quite a shrewd woman in her chosen profession, and Rhett always complimented her on her good instincts and ease with numbers. Was he thinking the same about her, too? Why was it fine for her to be a good investment for Rhett, but Scarlett was ridiculed for being in the same position? What was wrong with a woman making money? Was she supposed to starve? Belle was greedy too, and good at managing her business and she didn't think that was a bad way of being. Then her thoughts wandered further: why should she be expected to take care of herself alone? Because she was in the flesh business? Because she would never have a husband to take care of her? What Rhett was saying was that she, Belle, was allowed to make money, because he didn't want her. And because he wanted Scarlett, the woman was not allowed to succeed and only wait to be saved by him yet again. Rhett kept talking about how he respected Belle, but Belle started to fell anything but respected. And Scarlett was more or less in the same boat and Rhett didn't seem to appreciate her at all.

Then there was that cave or something store sign thing, when Rhett came to her, half laughing like a maniac at the new prank he almost pulled on Scarlett and half cursing Ashley for saving the day.

It took her a few minutes to understand the joke, and Rhett only rolled his eyes halfway when he realised he had to explain everything. But Belle's smile was thin in the end, thinking of the many times men had made fun of her.

As news about how Scarlett was really making more money than most men in town spread, Belle's thoughts started taking another shape. Rhett was not very nice to Scarlett, coming to gossip and bitch about her all the time. How could he love her? And then, when Scarlett returned the money she had borrowed from Rhett, on time and without much effort, Rhett's speech started to have a certain bitterness, as if he would have loved for her to fail.

Belle understood that Rhett was disappointed because Scarlett didn't need him more. The Hamilton-Kennedy woman (for she was Scarlett Kennedy at that moment), was minding about her business and filling her coffers without needing much advice. And Rhett didn't like that one bit. But wasn't he always deriding the soft manners and whiny ways of proper ladies? What did he want from the woman?

Belle also knew that the people of Atlanta were talking about Scarlett in barely better terms than they did about her. She knew that they thought she was a girl playing house but Scarlett had somehow proven to everyone that she was quite the business woman. At least the Yankees who played cards downstairs seemed to admire her cleverness. They also made the crudest jokes about her marriage to old, sick Frank Kennedy, and it wasn't hard to believe that Scarlett had quite a heavy load on her shoulders and she was managing without a man to guide her.

While Belle appreciated the genteel Mrs. Wilkes, she didn't have much respect for the rest of Atlanta's Old Guard. She also didn't expect her slight admiration (admiration mixed with envy, but still) towards Mrs. Kennedy to be reciprocated in any way. The women of the town would always lift their noses at her, and she was at peace with that. She was born and bred in the South, and well aware of its class system. She was the town's Madam and they were the wives, and that's how things were supposed to be.

But Rhett, Rhett was starting to annoy her, and she knew her annoyance did not come from jealousy. The man's stories were usually about how he managed to enrage Scarlett yet again, but from time to time he had these moments when he got terribly drunk and closed himself in the bedroom and only Belle was allowed to come in. Barely standing, he walked around the room and made promises of killing Frank Kennedy, of killing Ashley Wilkes, of kidnaping or killing Scarlett, or all of the above. Belle had to gently put him to bed, and curse Scarlett and Rhett and the whole town of Atlanta for this hellish roundabout they were all spinning in, without any chance of getting down properly. Scarlett loved Ashley, but she couldn't have him. Rhett loved Scarlett but most of the time treated her like she was some dumb, stupid child. Belle loved Rhett, although lately she had started to dislike him, and she also couldn't have him. And somewhere above them, Melanie Wilkes floated like an angel from Heaven, ignoring all clues about infidelity and all other inappropriate behaviour. Was the woman simple or what?

She remembered the few times over the years when she had been this close to telling Rhett how much she loved him, and the only thing that stopped her had been the realisation she was never going to see him again if she did. And now Rhett was going through the same thing. Sometimes she just wanted to scream at him: "How do you like that Captain Butler?"

At some point, Belle realised that Rhett was approaching his Scarlett problem in a dumb way. She was quite satisfied and surprised at her insight, for she had never before believed anything would bring Rhett so close to desperation as he was now.

She told him that perhaps Scarlett would appreciate being vowed with some nicely worded love declarations. Perhaps that's why she loved Ashley, because he was always talking gibberish. Perhaps she loved him because he was so polite, being the only married man in Atlanta who tipped his hat in Belle's direction when they met around town. But Rhett refused, and he started a long (and gibberish to Belle's ears) speech about him not being led about by the woman, and how his pride was above that, and how she would make his life a merry hell if she only knew.

Belle thought that it couldn't be much worse than his actual situation. Scarlett was leading him about right now. Didn't he realise that?

And now he was getting married.

"I kissed her, Belle. And she melted in my arms. I swear she had never been kissed like that before. She was breathless for minutes afterwards. And when I left she asked me to kiss her again.", said Rhett and a happy grin appeared on his face.

Belle looked sideways at a tall, massive falcon statue situated on the table, quite close to her and considered something for a second. Men were truly detestable beings, even the generous ones, with all their pirate good looks and white teeth.

"Well, a few good rolls in the hay as she's yours then." Belle answered.

"She doesn't deserve that. Yet. Now, where is Simone?", he asked. Simone was the whore of the moment, and Belle send her upstairs quickly.

Belle cursed Rhett Butler that moment. He knew she loved him and this is how the bastard was announcing his impending nuptials. This only meant that long nights of Rhett's confessions and examinations of Scarlett's character and actions were going to follow. Why did the man feel the need to confess so much? She was convinced the Hamilton Kennedy widow did not spend her time confessing to anyone. But she knew her place and held her tongue.

She had asked him, a few months in his marriage, when she finally gathered enough courage, how his amorous encounters with Scarlett were.

"Ha," Rhett said, "she's as scared as rabbit every time I touch her" and for a second Belle imagined how tender and caring Rhett could be in bed with a woman he truly loved.

"Well," Belle said, "I'm sure if there's a man who can break through a woman's reserve it's you."

But Rhett gave a mocking laugh and said" Really Belle, do you think even for a second that I'm going to make love to her while she sights for Ashley? The woman is as obsessed with him as I'm with her."

"So…" said Belle, "you sleep with her as a proper gentleman does, with the lights off and your night clothes on?" She couldn't image that, after all the pining and longing Rhett had done in the last years.

Rhett never answered her question.

Belle was not overly surprised when the bedroom eviction happened. Why a hot blooded, experienced man as Rhett wouldn't give his hot blooded (for she came to believe in time that a woman so prone to hysterics, name calling and property destruction could only be hot blooded), pretty wife what she obviously needed was escaping her.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The girl's cry for her startled Belle. "Well, what now?" she thought, getting up. "I don't know why I keep taking on these charity causes." The girl was simple and had the most annoying, shrill voice.

When she opened the door of her small office and got out, she froze, her hand still on the round knob.

Scarlett was here. And she looked somehow calm, in that way really dangerous people do when they prepare to strike deadly. She had seen that look on Rhett's face a few times.

Belle didn't know what to say. She had a good mouth on her, a necessity after years of hardship, but never before had she been in this situation. The genteel wives of the South did not come to her house for their husbands.

"Where is he?", Scarlett asked in a low voice.

"She's going to kill him. Dear God, that's why she's here" Belle thought, and gathering her wits said:

"I don't know who you're taking about". She then assessed the young Mrs. Butler, and smirking, went to stand in front of the stairs. Scarlett was at least a head shorter, and quite tiny. She could probably throw her out herself.

Scarlett went to the bar and with a quick swish of her crop send a dozen glasses splattering around the room.

And then she started screaming, took one of the chairs and threw it in the direction of the closest window. The window broke. Belle's eyes went round. She never expected such a delicate looking woman to have such strength.

"I'm going to burn your house down, you bucket of snouts. I'm going to kill him and you and every living disgusting creature under your roof. You blew up like a barrel in the last years. What does he see in a fat arse like yourself I'll never know!". Scarlett did not know, until that moment, how good it felt to talk like Gerald did when drunk. She also didn't know why she was so jealous of this woman.

Belle, having worked for a few years in her youth in the whorehouses of Savannah, where thousands of half starved and violent Irish men descended as a result of the famine, was quite familiar with Irish swearing. Still, she didn't expect it from the mouth of a Southern lady, even if that lady's ladyness was as controversial as Scarlett's.

"Wait now, Mrs. Butler, there's no need to…" but Scarlett was coming in her direction and she heard a swish and the crop landed on her arm, above the elbow. Luckily she had a long sleeved dress on, or the hit would have broken her skin.

Belle managed to swallow her scream and cowered in one direction. Agile like a well trained cat, Scarlett went around her and started running up the stairs. When she got to the first floor, Belle was right behind her, thinking what to do. Should she jump on her? Hit her? She was Rhett's wife after all, and even under the circumstances, she didn't think Rhett would react positively to a cat fight between her and his wife.

Scarlett opened the first door. On the bed, two half naked girls were sleeping. They didn't even flinch. Leaving the door open Scarlett went to the next one.

Belle, knowing what was happening in there, tried to throw herself in front of the door. Scarlett, believing that Rhett was inside, pushed her with the power only madmen had.

"My," Belle thought, "she must be really wiry underneath those clothes. It's not normal for a woman to move like that."

The door flew open at Scarlett's hand and she saw a flabby, white man on the bed, his hands above his head, tied with thin strings to the heavily decorated frame. Above him another half naked girl, back turned to the door, was doing something awful to him, as the man had a painful expression on his contorted face.

Scarlett, the girl and the man screamed at the same time. The girl got up and jumped out of bed, still screaming, dressed only in a short petticoat, her small boobs almost flying on her thin frame. The man started pulling at his binds, his legs throwing around the room an assortment of small pillows, quilts and feminine lingerie, cursing vehemently.

Scarlett closed her mouth, closed her eyes for a second, and crossed herself. Then she opened her eyes and turned to Belle, and her small hand went to the silk ruffles of the woman's dress, right between her breasts.

"Where is he?" she said again.

Belle started to wave weakly towards the last door on the hallway, when the door opened and the devil that was Rhett Butler came out, completely undisturbed.

"What's this ruckus about?"

He was dressed in a new, fresh white shirt, half buttoned, taken a few minutes ago from the stash he kept at Belle. He had on the same grey trousers he had left his house in, and was barefoot. By the looks of it, he had just stepped out of a bath. His hair was still wet, a lone curl hanging on his forehead, and he was wiping his freshly shaved face with a small towel.

His eyebrows went up for the tiniest of seconds, and then the same contained face he used to keep on most occasions appeared.

At that moment, both Scarlett and Belle hated him for his unnatural restraint.

"Why, hello pet! Are you here to take me home? You shouldn't have bothered."

He took in the women in front of him. Poor Belle, white faced and confused, holding her upper arm and rubbing it and Scarlett. Scarlett, looking so very beautiful, she almost took his breath away. All flushed, her lips as red as blood, her eyes burning in a way he had never seen before, not even that day at the jail. He had felt guilty these last days, but now, looking at her standing here, part of his shame vanished. She looked good enough, not hurt in any way. Not scared of him either. And how he loved her when she was angry. He should know, insulting and infuriating her almost aroused him. And now he couldn't take his eyes of her. This savage look she had on her face was definitely making him hard.

The staring at each other lasted a few seconds. Scarlett heard "pet" and that's when her instincts told her to strike, to unleash all the destructive powers her body and mind had barely managed to keep in until now.

She was in front of him with the quickness of a bird of prey, and her crop, hidden in the folds of her skirt and out of his sight, went up and hit Rhett right below his cheekbone. She hit him so hard that a small trickle of blood started to run down his face. He looked at her surprised and then tried to grab her. Scarlett, who expected that, went back a step and her crop hit him again, on the exposed skin of his chest. Rhett, his skin still damp from the bath, felt as if someone had stabbed him with the small scalpels doctors used to operate with.

His body curved inwards and Scarlett's hand grabbed his shirt and pushed him in his bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

Her hand went down, ripping at his shirt and sending small pearl buttons flying. She slapped him and pushed him towards the bed. She didn't know exactly what she was going to do but right now she wanted Rhett underneath her, just like she had been underneath him. She wanted to see his eyes rolling in his head and hear him moaning and begging for something she was going to give him. And Rhett Butler, the vile creature that he was, sensed where his wife's thoughts were leading and fell on the bed without a word of protest. Maybe because this time he wasn't drunk, or maybe because he had this vague memory of her falling apart in his arms two nights ago.

"Is this where you do your whoring?", his wife asked, seeing only the big, unmade bed . "Now your whore is going to hear you scream."

Scarlett wanted to do one thing and one thing only. She wanted to move on top of him like he had moved on top of her two nights ago. Straddling him, she put his hand under the band of his trousers and started pulling. Somehow the pants were sturdier than his shirt and the buttons stayed closed. Scarlett barked at him: "Open your trousers" and Rhett's hand did that without hesitation.

Without looking down she lifted her hips and tried to bring his erection, for he had quite an impressive one right now, where her many drawers were split in the , that was a task almost impossible for her, who only knew that babies came out from somewhere down there.

Rhett's hand gently touched her hip and moved her a little. Scarlett found what she was looking for and slapped his hand away. Then her hips pressed down with all the power her tiny bones possessed.

Her face scrunched in slight discomfort but that was immediately forgotten when she heard Rhett's shallow scream.

"Am I hurting you, you bastard? Good, I want to hurt you". She slapped him again.

Contrary to her over confident behaviour, Scarlett was in a bit of a dilemma at the moment. She looked down at the velvet skirt that was covering them, averting her eyes so that Rhett couldn't see her puzzled look, and she thought about her next move.

"Now what? Do I…? Ah, I can move up and down." she thought and then looked at Rhett. He stared at her like a hurt, hungry animal, and that gave her all the courage she needed.

"This isn't too hard," Scarlett thought. "Kind of like riding a horse astride." She smiled at her newly acquired knowledge, the impish, arrogant smile of those rare people who are good at new things right from the beginning. Rhett recognised the smile, because it had come to him too, easily, since he was a child.

His wife started moving slowly above him, and Captain Butler pushed his head back and groaned.

"Do you like being beneath me, you pathetic excuse of a man?"

"Oh, yes!" Rhett whispered. "Show me who's the boss baby! Go faster!"

Enjoying the tortured look on his face Scarlett did. And she discovered that if she bended slightly forward, the most delicious shiver ran through her.

"Listen to me, you wretched creature! You will never leave the house without asking for my permission first!"

She scratched his chest, dragging her nails from his chest to his hard abdomen and he hissed.

"You will always tell me where you're going! You're never allowed to step foot in here again!". She went up, until only the tip of him was inside her and slammed on him violently.

"Oh, yes Scarlett!" and Rhett swore something unintelligible beneath his breath and tried to lift himself ho meet her halfway.

"Don't move!" she grabbed his chin and pushed her nails into his cheek. He stiffened. She saw his hands grabbing the sheets and pulling at them, and remembered how she had done the same. "Good," she thought, "let him feel helpless for once."

"You will never call me pet again! You will never… !", she said while making small circles with her hips. God, seeing Rhett so vulnerable was doing things to her, from the tips of her toes to the tips of her bosom.

She grabbed his shoulders to pull him nearer and kissed him. Her tongue tasted the roof of his mouth briefly and a powerful wave hit her like never before. The black coals of his eyes were burning her skin, staring at her unblinkingly, telling her something, something she could't understand in the heat of the moment. She kept her eyes open too, looking directly at him, feeling that she had taken something from him, something that he wouldn't have given her without reluctance. Lifting her head she screamed, mad with this new gift her body just discovered.

Outside the door, Belle, slumped against the wall, wondered who had killed whom. At least it wasn't a gunshot.

She had gone to reassure the flabby Mr. Hesse, an old customer with the common fetish (another word Rhett explained to her) of being tied down, who was only able to come to the house once a month and only during daylight hours, curtesy of his small pay check and suspicious wife, that everything was as good as ever. She convinced him that he could stay with the girl of his choice the whole day for free. He seemed happy enough in the end, after promising him everything would be dealt with the utmost discretion. She had returned to guard Rhett's door, God knows why. She was getting tired of Butler's complaints about his wife and marriage. If the woman was as disinterested as he believed, she wouldn't be here right now. Also, Belle rightfully thought, they deserved each other. They seemed to share the same kind of madness.

"Let this day end with everyone alive. Let them go home and deal with whatever ails them there. I can't handle a murder under my roof.", Belle begged God for the thousand time in the last forty minutes.

Rhett was still hard as rock. He looked at his wife and thought again how he had never seen her as beautiful as she was now. Scarlett was a little dazed, but recovered quickly. The memory of him doing those things to her twice in a row two nights ago came to mind and she squared her jaw. If he could do these… unmentionable things in quick succession, she could too. She felt invincible now. She realised she still had her crop in her right hand, and grabbed it with both fists. She put it underneath his chin and pushed his head back.

"You will never mention Ashley again. I don't care about him and I don't want to discuss him, ever again. You will never make fun of me again.", she said through gritted teeth.

"Yes my love!" , Rhett had thrown all caution to the wind. He loved her desperately and would have given everything to extend this moment forever, to have her above him until the end of time.

Scarlett, the most satisfied and cocky look on her face, started moving again. She pushed the crop further, bending his neck in the most unnatural way.

"Show me who's in charge my baby! Hurt me!" God, Rhett considered briefly, who would have thought, but I'm a sick, masochistic son of a…

"And you are going to sleep in my bed. You are going to spoil me as much as you spoil Bonnie." There, she said it. She admitted being jealous of her own child. He was really able to bring the worst in her. She slapped him again.

"If you don't do exactly as I say…" Scarlett stopped for a moment and remembering the happenings in the second bedroom screamed at him victoriously: "I will tie you to the bed and really hurt you!"

Rhett rolled his eyes and shivered from head to toe. This was going even better than his wildest fantasies regarding Scarlett.

"God, Scarlett! Tell me again what you want to do to me! I'll never disobey you, I swear!"

"And you are" she said, punctuating her words with the movements of her hips "going to give me another child. I want a boy." Even Scarlett stopped, with a, frankly, stupid look in her eyes. She didn't know where that came from, but in that moment one thing was clear in her mind. She wanted a boy with her husband.

Rhett stopped too, staring at her. Was he dreaming? But as he had always done everything in his power to keep her happy, he decided he was going to grant her this too. His big hands went around her hips, clutching the folds of green velvet and he started to really try to make her wish come true. It took a very short time for both of them to scream in unison.

Scarlett rolled to the side, a strange energy still flowing through her veins, and tried to stretch her arms above her head, aware of how tight her corset and jacket felt. Her little hat had slung comically to the side and her hair was spread in messy tendrils around her shoulders, with pins hanging loose around the ends. Without forgetting herself, she sat up and narrowing her eyes in his direction, told him to get dressed.

She was glad he got up immediately. Seeing him half naked made her cheeks flame, as always, and she didn't want to get distracted. Getting up and starting to get busy with tidying her appearance, Scarlett could't help congratulate herself with the course of the events, but also feeling a little bit cheated. Rhett didn't look too aggrieved. At least he was dressing and preparing to go home with her. She was sick of answering the children's questions about where Daddy and Uncle Rhett was.

She managed to push most of her hair back in her hairnet, and straighten her hat and clothes. She couldn't see a mirror in the room and didn't want to ask for one.

"How do I look?" she asked her husband, frowning at him. Rhett assured her she looked just perfect, without mentioning how utterly ravished she appeared. He prayed at least one member of the Old Guard was roaming the streets, so that word about their reunion would spread around town.

Scarlett opened the door and took in with unveiled satisfaction how Belle jumped from her place on the floor.

"Have Captain Butler's horse ready", she commanded airily, and turned to her husband who, dressed as impeccable as ever, was right behind her. In a swish of skirts, Belle ran downstairs and yelled for old Paris to make everything ready for the departure of the two most twisted human beings she had ever encountered.

Scarlett gripped her husband's hand as if afraid to let him step away from her for even a second and he followed her down the stairs. Rhett ,with the most idiotic grin on his face, helped her on her horse and then, getting up too, tipped his hat in Belle's direction. Scarlett only smirked and lifted her nose.

Belle, standing on the porch of her whorehouse, wondered for a second if she was not a pawn in the awry games these people seemed to play. Although not religious by any means, she almost felt like crossing herself and thought about sending for the priest for a thoughtful blessing of her establishment. The priest would charge her more but it wasn't impossible to convince him, with the right amount of coin and special attention.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

It was a perfect spring day. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and the whole Atlanta was still talking about the supposed adultery between Scarlett Butler and Ashley Wilkes.

That was, before seeing the Butlers riding home from _that_ part of town. Everyone knew where Captain Butler had been in the last two days. As it appeared, his wife had gone to fetch him home. And by the looks of it, she managed to do that with some effort, considering her slightly dishevelled mien. He didn't look so good either, with a gash and some scratches on his face.

Rene Picard, driving home from his second pie delivery of the day, opened his mouth in amazement when he passed them, but gathered his wits quickly and answered Captain's Butler salute with one of his own.

A few meters forward, in front of Dr. Meade's office, Maybelle and her mother were conversing with Mrs. Meade in hushed tones about Maybelle's impending pregnancy. Mrs. Meade, who was facing the street, stopped talking, looking in shock at the two riders. The other two women, seeing her face, slowly turned around.

Scarlett greeted them with the fakest, sweetest smile she had in her arsenal of feminine wares. And Captain Butler, instead of looking ashamed, like the whoremongering husband that he was, smiled with all his teeth and tipped his hat in their direction, thanking whatever gods were available for this meeting and for how quickly word would spread in Ashley Wilkes's direction.

"Is that what I think it is, Dolly?", Mrs. Meade asked.

Mrs. Merriwether, who had been a widow for many years, but in her time had dealt with her husband's unnatural inclination towards women of ill repute, gasped. She never brought her husband home from bawdy houses, but once, after Maybelle was born, had stopped talking to him for two whole months on account of his nights away from home. It took her a second to decide whose side she was going to favour.

"Good for her!" she said. "It was time someone regulated him."

"Only Scarlett would be able to do such a thing, Dolly. Stepping foot in that creature's house!", Mrs. Meade replied.

"What creature?", Maybelle asked, but she was ignored as a child is when grown-ups talk about grown-up things.

"Why, Dolly," Mrs. Meade continued, "isn't this an interesting turn of events. Maybe that meeting at the mill was not what it appeared to be and Melly was right about them being old friends."

And the clattering tongues of Atlanta were delighted and almost grateful for the Butler family. So many things to talk about: was Scarlett really cheating on Captain Butler with Ashley? Did she really go to Belle's whorehouse to bring her husband home? Did she hit him? He did have a gash on his cheek, but otherwise looked as impeccable as always. Did he hit her? Did she get into a fight with Belle over him? Was she the jealous and wronged wife? Was he the gullible and neglected husband? Was Melly right? Was India right?

Oh, so many intriguing and riveting questions, and of the most delightfully shameful kind. The righteous people of Atlanta were going to love dissecting everything in the tiniest detail for months and months. In small dingy parlours, in hushed tones and with a hand delicately put in front of their mouths the women were going to shiver with the pleasure that comes from hearing the most indecent pieces of gossip. They were going to start at the beginning, with that fateful day when the widow Hamilton had first stepped foot on the streets of Atlanta, and continue with the dance and the war and the murder of Frank Kennedy and the wedding and the mill incident. They were going to analyse and remember tiny details that had been long forgotten but were more than obvious now. On street corners and in saloons men were going to talk with knowing grins about cat fights and whorehouses and women slapping each other in front of the infallible Captain Butler.

They were also waiting breathlessly for the next turn of events.

When they got to the Peachtree house, Scarlett send Rhett to see the children and ran to her bedroom. She called for Mammy to undress her. She was so tired, she wanted to sleep until tomorrow.

Mammy came in, looking quite pleased and put her lamb to bed without any questions. Scarlett was grateful for that as she had no answers. The satisfaction she felt for besting Rhett an hour ago was gone, and she started to feel quite confused again. She was sick of asking herself what had happened. It happened that she had slept with her husband again, and in a whorehouse no less. What she could make of the day was that she wanted Rhett home with her, and she wanted him to be nice to her. And considering Mammy's approving smirk and the look on Mrs. Merriwether and Mrs. Meade faces, she knew she had done right by bringing him back.

When Scarlett woke up it was night time. She was hungry but she didn't want to get out of her bedroom. How could she ever face Rhett again after today? She realised with surprise that she didn't feel much shame towards her actions. Putting her wrapper on she went to listen to the door, and opened it slightly. The hall was half dark and she saw Prissy making faces in one of the mirrors hanging on the wall.

The girl screamed of course. "There goes my peace for tonight.", Scarlett thought. But she was still too tired to berate Prissy. Upon questioning her about her whereabouts, Prissy admitted she had been sent by Captain Butler to guard her door and let him know when she would be up, so that he could bring her a tray with the supper upstairs.

"Here we go!", Scarlett said to herself. "Let the madness being anew." She send the girl on her way and resigned, went to bed and arranged the quilts around her, making sure she was as covered as possible.

There was a knock on the door.

"Come in" Scarlett said, and straightened her back, trying to look prim and proper.

Rhett opened the door. "Am I given permission to come in?", he asked.

"I said come in, didn't I?" Scarlett narrowed her eyes. Without further commentary her husband arranged the tray in front of her and opened her napkin, moving as carefully as he did when he was dealing with Bonnie. Or with her during their honey moon, she remembered and tried to suppress a sight.

She started eating and eyeing the plate as she had never seen one before. Maybe if she wasn't going to look at him he'll go away, she hoped.

But Rhett slipped in an armchair in front of the fireplace and stretched out his long legs, watching her with interest.

"What?", she asked, not caring that her mouth was full.

"I thought you might have things to tell me, instructions to give me, my…"

"Don't call me pet again Rhett" Scarlett's head snapped up, but she avoided his gaze. "I'm serious. I'll throw the plate at you, no matter how hungry I am."

"…darling wife. I'll keep that in mind. Please don't throw the plate at me. Mammy will have to clean it up and I think we gave her enough bother these days for the next decade."

"Have the children eaten?" Scarlett congratulated herself for changing the subject.

"They did and I send them to Miss Melly. They'll sleep there tonight."

A small smile appeared on Scarlett's face for a second but she kept her eyes down and continued eating and staring at the tray as if it was the most fascinating thing in the room.

"Are you, perhaps, embarrassed about something and that's why you refuse to look at me?" Rhett enquired.

"Ha! I'm not embarrassed!"

After a small pause she continued: "Are you disappointed?" she smirked at him. "If there's anyone in this house who should be embarrassed it's you Captain Butler. Everyone in Atlanta knows where you've been! How do you like me being the wronged part for a change, you double faced…"

"And everybody thinks you cheated on me with Ashley. Let's refrain from calling the kettle black."

Scarlett threw her fork at him, but without much enthusiasm. It landed on the soft carpet without a sound. Rhett got up and lifted it from the floor.

"Should I call for Prissy to bring you another one?" he asked.

His wife crossed her arms, pushed the tray away and looked sideways. "No. I'm finished."

"Finished with eating, my dear? Or…" She nodded and Rhett lifted the tray and took it outside in the hallway.

Scarlett mumbled something.

"I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that. What did you say?"

Lifting her narrowed eyes she said: "It wasn't like that. I wasn't cheating on you. I wouldn't cheat on you in my office, in the middle of the day."

"Ah! If only the circumstances were different…"

"Why do you always think the worst of me? I would never cheat on you. Unlike you, who…" Scarlett raised her voice.

"Because I know you too well and we've had Mr. Wilkes presence as our bed companion ever since we got married."

Scarlett looked at him baffled. "What?", she thought. "He's trying to confuse me again. I won't let him."

"Oh, spare me! You don't know me at all and you don't care to know me either. You only want someone to poke fun at and leave behind every time you fell the need to run away. You're always running away and leaving me somewhere. And I don't remember you caring so much about who shared your bed either. Either I or one of your whores would have done!"

Rhett was again sitting in his armchair.

"I'll address your points, which I might add are quite accurate, later. But as your husband and unfortunate fellow who pays your very large bills, I would like to know what happened at the mills."

"Why" Scarlett asked pointedly, "so you can run away again?"

"That bad, eh?" , he threw her a knowing look.

Scarlett rolled her eyes. "Nothing happened. We were talking about how things were back in the County, before the war. I miss my parents, and the twins, and my life as it was. Ashley started talking about how life was befoe and he made me cry. You know I never cry, Rhett. And then he hugged me, India came in… you know the rest. It was…I wasn't throwing myself at him, Rhett, it was nothing like that. I felt nothing and…" she stopped, mouth opened, as if something had come to her, some answer she had been looking for ages. Suddenly, she realised, she wanted Rhett to believe her. He said nothing, looking down at his crossed fingers.

"Well?" she asked. "Do you believe me?" And then remembering she had to be upset, added: "Not that it matters much. The whole town talks about me. He was the one who started it. And still I'm the one who's guilty. He was touching me, not the other way around."

"Would you like me to call him out and defend your honour, my dear?"

"What? God no, Rhett." Scarlett said throwing her hands in the air. "You might as well shoot him in the back. You could probably kill him with your eyes closed." And, because the image of Ashley, looking guilty as sin, appeared in front of her eyes again, she started getting agitated. "He doesn't deserve that, the coward. Did you see how ashamed he looked at the party? Like we…I refuse to feel that way. For once I did nothing wrong." And considering further, she added: "And what would Melly do afterwards?"

"I would. I doubt he would even lift the gun at me. He would just stand there and take it honourably, as always. But since when do you care about Miss Melly?"

"What do you mean since when? I always cared. I helped her deliver Beau, I took care of her at Tara, I gave her husband a job. I…", she stopped surprised, nodding her head."I care about her".

Rhett was looking at her, his face unmoved, just a strange glitter in his eyes. He hadn't looked at her like that in months, Scarlett thought and felt her blood pumping faster in her veins.

"You said this morning that you're going to do exactly what I tell you to" she started anew, gathering all her courage, for she didn't want to remember the details and could not understand why she felt almost no shame regarding her more than scandalous behaviour.

"Well, I did promise didn't I? It was hard for me not to promise anything and everything considering how viciously I was attacked by your amorous intentions. You know how hard it is me for me to resist your many charms Scarlett. Should I enumerate them? But I did promise and even if I did it under duress, I'm going to keep my word. Although I can't imagine what more would you want from me" he stopped and threw his hand around, "or maybe how much? For what sum should I write the check?"

"I'm not going to be embarrassed, I'm not", Scarlett though, but her checks were burning. "I'm going to give as good as I get.", she promised herself. "Even if the bastard doesn't care, he's going to stay here with me and the children and do his husbandly duty." Scarlett didn't understand why she wanted Rhett with her as much as possible, but she didn't dwell on that.

"I did what I had to do, don't I always?" Scarlett said, choosing to ignore his last question. "I'm not a coward, as you well know. And I was attacked too, two nights ago too. Or were you too drunk to remember? Don't imagine, even for a second, Rhett Butler, that you can make fear you, no matter how you chose to do it." Scarlett said with satisfaction. "I can fight as dirty as you do and beat you at it."

Rhett never felt as much admiration and love for his wife as he did now, not even that morning. He was the biggest fool and he knew it, but right now he only wanted to beg at her feet and kiss her tiny slippers. He cursed himself and realised that he should have encouraged Scarlett have his way with him from the beginning. He should have put her on top of him on their wedding night and tell her she could do whatever she wanted to him, just as he let her do whatever she wanted in general. Of course someone who was thriving on control as much as she did would have loved that, after some initial fumbling. And he wouldn't have minded being her fool in the bedroom. She wouldn't have time to dream of Ashley if she could boss him around between the sheets. Two nights ago and this morning she was there, with him, saying his name. If this sort of amorous coupling was what his wife needed, he would raise to the occasion. Hell, he could even make some suggestions.

With some shame and surprise for someone as confident with the other sex as him, he realised that he never really satisfied his wife in bed until now. He wanted to ask if he should bring a whip so she could punish him properly but he was still amazed by this strange turn of events, and kept his tongue. He knew that no matter her current mood, Scarlett was easily embarrassed, and didn't want to do anything to change his currently lucky hand.

"I await breathlessly your commands, my sweet mistress."

"Very well, Rhett," she said. "I hope you listen well, because I don't care about repeating myself." Oh, this feels good, she thought, this is what I like most, ordering people around. And ordering Rhett Butler around was going to be the cherry on top of all her achievements. No amounts of bossing her employees, for she had quite a few of those, was going to top this.

"I don't need your money, as you very well know. I have plenty and can make more. I will make more.", she corrected herself. "Go ahead and mock my greediness, I don't expect you to understand what it feels for your child to have nothing to eat. You will stay in every night. If you care so much about the children's reputation then I shall care too about where you spend your time."

"Maybe you should stay home more too, Scarlett. And try to be a mother, you know, not the bully in the schoolyard.", Rhett added.

Scarlett ignored him.

"You will pretend to be a loving and respectable husband. You will not leave town whenever you want and without asking me first. You will not throw me under the wheels of Atlanta's Old Guard because I'm not what you expected me to be when you married me."

"And how do I do that, Scarlett? If I remember correctly, I was there with you two nights ago, when I could have left you to face the lions alone."

"And you're going to be with me even more. I want Bonnie to sleep in the nursery. The whole town talks about that, and I'm sick of it."

Rhett got up from his chair and sat on the bed at her feet. He slowly dragged the covers, exposing only her tiny feet. His warm hands started kneading the soft flesh of her soles.

"What are you doing?" , she asked surprised and trying to pull away.

"I'm only doing my duty. Isn't that what you were saying, Scarlett? Would you like me to be your little handsome househusband and take care of everything?"

"Hmph!" his wife snorted indelicately. "As you would know what it means to take care of a house. The servants and children need to be clothed and told what to do, and menus planned and flowers bought…"

"I'm good with the children. I could always learn the rest.", he interrupted. "But don't let me stop you. You were adding things to my to do list. Please go on."

Scarlett was starting to really like this strange game they were playing. She remembered herself and continued in a superior tone: "You, of course, will sleep here with me. I wasn't kidding when I said I want a boy." This idea of hers had slowly crystallised in her mind in the last hours, but until now, she couldn't quite understand why she said that. Now she knew.

A baby, hopefully a boy just like Rhett, was going to shut the mouths of Atlanta and prove everyone she was the most dutiful wife. That's why she said it. How smart I am, Scarlett congratulated herself. She was going to be the perfect mother and carry the baby around with her so that everyone would see how much she loved her children. Here Scarlett made a mental note to try and be more involved with the children she already had. And the mighty Captain Butler would not be able to run away every time he fancied with four children hanging around his ankles.

Rhett's head snapped up. Was this his wife? Then the flicker that was in his eyes grew stronger. Scarlett was saying something without really saying it. She probably didn't even realise it but she wanted him more than she was able to admit, even to herself. Did he dare to hope that his wife's greediness would extend to his person, too?

"I will follow your orders blindly, my pretty general. Should we start applying ourselves to this goal of yours tonight?"

Scarlett lifted her nose, and a memory came to her. "Don't you think you've had enough kissing for one afternoon?" she mocked him. Rhett's heart almost exploded with newly revived admiration. How he had missed this, the funny, naughty exchanges, the teasing and the taunting conversation only the two of them could have. And, looking at Scarlett's arrogant and mischievous smile, he knew she must have missed them too.

"Scarlett, as a thrice married woman, you should know that's not children are made. I could always demonstrate the proper ways…" but Scarlett hushed him and told him to get changed for bed.

When he came back she was in front of her vanity desk brushing her hair. Rhett took the brush and, after asking for her permission, started untangling a knot with such care and gentleness, Scarlett almost started purring. He saw him staring at her in the mirror and recovered quickly, thinning her lips, but the damage was done. Still, he said nothing.

How good it felt, she thought, to have Rhett's hands on her. How did she not realise sooner that him touching her was soothing in a way nothing had ever been since she last lowered her head in her mother's skirts and felt her hand gently caress her cheek. She congratulated herself again for bringing him back and promised herself he was not going to escape her clutches ever again.

She felt so satisfied, she didn't hear him put the brush down.

"Scarlett…Scarlett baby, we're finished" , Rhett said.

She jumped up and closed her wrapper around her neck.

"I'm going to sleep now." Arranging her wrapper on the bed with much more care than was needed, Scarlett slipped between the covers.

"Of course, mistress. As your lowly servant am I allowed to sleep in your bed or should I just drag a chair close and guard your…"

"Oh, hush Rhett. Go to sleep already. And keep to your side. I had a long day.", she said, her back at him.

"Exhausting too, I might add."

"Shut up." Oh, this was torture, Scarlett thought, having him so near and the memory of him holding her in his arms so powerful in her mind. Lifting herself up on her elbow she turned her head to look at him. He had extinguished all the lights and the room was dark and quiet as a tomb.

Trying to sound as neutral as possible she told him:

"Hold me. We wouldn't want me to have another nightmare. I'm plenty tired as it is…"

"Shh, Scarlett. I'm here." Rhett turned and his long arms enveloped her and dragged her to his chest. His leg went above hers and his ankle settled between her tiny feet. Scarlett couldn't stop her satisfied sight, feeling that everything was right in the world again.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

She couldn't sleep. She was so happy and giddy, she felt like tossing and turning a million times over. Only the thought that Rhett would ask her what was wrong and she would have to find an answer stopped her. She wanted to touch him and feel his skin underneath her palms, to knead his flesh and bury her nose in the crook of his neck and smell him, just to make sure he was here with her. She could feel his warm hand on her belly, a few centimetres away from hers, and wanted to grab it and crush it with her fingers, taking comfort in knowing that it would stay as strong and firm no matter how hard she tried. And kiss him. Kiss him until she was breathless, until both were breathless. Did he feel the same when they kissed? The last times they did she could have sworn he was as taken with her as she had been with him on that rainy morning in Aunt Pitty's parlour .

Why was she so content to have Rhett in her bed again? How she had missed talking to him. There wasn't any other person on earth she wanted to spend time with. A flash went through her brain, and for the first time in years, a much needed peace settled over her. She loved him, she realised. The desperate affection she had felt for Ashley could not compare to this complete feeling contentedness she felt in his arms. As a child presented with a new toy, everything else disappeared, and her mind was only concentrating on this new discovery that gave her so much pleasure.

This is why she wanted another child with him and why she went to fetch him from that disgraceful place. Why didn't she realise this earlier, she couldn't understand for the life of her. She remembered thinking being in love with him during the war and she understood she had loved him all along. Oh, but this was the most delightful revelation that had ever crossed her mind. The man she loved was here, in her bed, with his arm around her waist and half of his body almost crushing her into the mattress. They were married and had the most sprightful and beautiful little girl together. And he was handsome and rich and always kept her on her toes. Why hadn't she been happy before? What was this silly thing about Ashley she used to believe? That she loved him? So many years wasted on a stupid fantasy of hers. She snorted in her pillow, and thought that was the most ridiculous thing ever. But there was also something else that bothered her, something dark that she couldn't quite make sense of.

Still, a small laugh escaped her throat and she turned to Rhett, who was almost awake and looking at her with a disoriented look.

"Hmm?", he asked.

Scarlett pushed her mouth to his and kissed him, without any shyness. She wasn't going to lose another second of her life, their life together. She wasn't going to wait until tomorrow to find out what she most wanted to know.

"You said you love me."

"Hmm?" Rhett mumbled again and started to get up.

"You said you love me. Two nights ago you said you love me. You do, don't you?" , she asked in a quick whisper.

"What do you think Scarlett?", he replied after a few seconds.

"You do. That's why you're always going to that creature's house, and that's why you always make fun of me. I used to wonder why you married me. It's because you love me."she said triumphantly. "You were trying to make me jealous, weren't you Rhett?"

"I quite succeeded, didn't I? After yesterday's events, there's no doubt in that."

"You were trying to make me jealous because I said that silly thing about Ashley when you proposed, right? I don't know why I said that, it was some girlish fantasy of mine…And because I kicked you out of our bedroom? I was so upset afterwards, Rhett, I wanted you to come back but I thought you would refuse and laugh at me…"

" _You_ were upset? _Silly_ thing about Ashley?" he interrupted. He was sitting now. "God Scarlett, I never met anyone as nescient as you." And then, remembering who he was talking to, added: "That means deaf and blind to everything. Except the sound of money and the sight of Mr. Wilkes droopy eyes, of course."

"Stop confusing me." Scarlett rolled her eyes in the dark. If him mumbling nonsense and evading the topic wasn't a sign of being afraid to say the words, she didn't know what it was.

"You can tell me Rhett. I'll keep your secret. And we're already married, I can't trick you out of your bachelorhood anymore." , she said in the sweetest voice she had used since she was sixteen, sitting on the lawn at Twelve Oaks, with somewhere between thirteen to seventeen bedazzled young men around her.

"Should I throw in a sight for good measure?", she added.

Rhett started laughing, and his laugh became so loud and powerful, that Scarlett couldn't stop from starting to laugh too. She brought her fingers to his chest and started tickling him, remembering the many times he had done the same to her, and hoping he'll get the hint and start a tickling contest, like they used to have on their honeymoon.

He did. She was no match for him. Scarlett had tears in her eyes and was hiccuping when he stopped, with him holding her hands above her head and his entire length on top of her, and even in the dark she felt his eyes burning with such happiness she felt swept inside a cloud of safety and joy. He brought his mouth close to hers…

"You're heavy. Get off.", she managed to breathe out.

His face changed and he lifted himself. Feeling his body stiffen Scarlett's hands hugged him quickly.

"Say it.", she whispered.

Rhett slowly disentangled her arms, got up and sighted. "I always loved you, Scarlett. Why has this been so hard for you to comprehend, I'll never realise."

Scarlett's mouth opened in surprise for a second. "I knew it!"

Rhett sighted again, standing up now, his back at her."See, this was exactly what I was afraid of…" he started.

"You're forgiven.", Scarlett said quickly.

"I'm forgiven! What, pray tell, am I forgiven for? For loving you since you were barely out of childhood, for always hanging around like a stupid fool, for giving you whatever you wanted every time you…"

"Oh, Rhett!", Scarlett interrupted him. "Isn't it obvious to someone as smart as you believe you are? For never telling me. For running away every time you felt…I don't know, whatever you felt…for making fun of me all these years. Come back to bed Rhett. I'm cold without you."

"Say it.", his voice cut through the air. "Say it or I'll let you freeze alone in your big bed."

"What? You want me to say I love you?" Scarlett giggled. "Of course I do. I think I've been in love with you for years."

If someone was ever looking for the definition of frustrated bewilderment, Rhett Butler felt like there was no better example in the whole world but him right now. She loved him for years, she said. One of his eyes almost started twitching.

"I'm not a coward, Rhett. I would have thrown myself at you years ago, had I understood what I was feeling earlier.", and then she added:

"Probably since our scandalous dance. I just haven't realised it until today. Do you think I sing praises to every rude fool I dance with?"

"How exactly were you singing me praises, Scarlett? I don't quite remember that."

"I told you you walz well, didn't I?"

"You did."

"Do you remember that tableau, during the war, when you were so mean to Mrs. Elsing and you had to leave? I started running after you, but she stopped me. I should have pushed her away…", Scarlett sighted. "But Rhett, you were always so difficult to read, I never…I just though that's what you wanted, for me… I don't know how to explain it, but you were nice for a second and then mean for a day. I was trying to match your meanness. Had you been nicer…In the beginning I thought I'm in love with you a few times and I wanted you to say I'm the prettiest and most charming girl ever and that you're desperately in love with me. I admit I wanted to make fun of you for it, and pay you back for all the times you laughed at my expense. I was always thinking of you, even if I hated you sometimes. Always, Rhett. And I was so confused about Ashley…And after we had Bonnie you acted like you cared about me even less…"

"Anyway," she continued, thinking she made a mistake by bringing Ashley up, "I think you should be grateful, Captain Butler. We would have been married in a heartbeat had I realised sooner. At least you got to play bachelor for a few more years."

Rhett said nothing. This day had been a mixture of cold and hot showers for him. Since he was a child, he always had the best opinion about himself and his many talents. Until Scarlett, he had never doubted his abilities to read and play people, to manage in any situation, no matter how delicate or dangerous. And today he had felt like a fool so many times, his confidence was starting to crumble. He didn't know his wife as well as he believed, he had not been able to keep her happy in those few years of marriage, he had been indeed mean to her, most of the times without any reason but for the tiny sparks of satisfaction his ego needed in his stupid fight against the fact that he loved and desired Scarlett in the most desperate way. And it had been as difficult for him to understand he loved her as it had been for her to realise it. Knowing how simple she was in affairs of the heart, he should have been more…Whatever, he decided. He wasn't going to think about it now. He was going to think about it tomorrow. Or maybe never. Maybe he should just delight in the fact that Scarlett said she loved him and wanted him back in her bed. He saw now that he had ignored and discouraged every sign she ever gave, and had rebuffed every chance they ever had for a normal conversation between lovers by treating her in the most condescending way. He was not a good husband, he was not a good lover, hell, he wasn't much of a friend either.

Being cursed with a most analytical nature, Rhett Butler wanted to dissect every word his wife had said to him in the course of the last twenty-four hours, every look and gesture and moan, and he wanted to reach the same conclusion he always reached when he felt he was making any kind of progress with Scarlett. He wanted to find some hidden meaning that she was playing him around, making fun of him, abusing the twisted kind of love he had chosen to show her. Why was he doing that? He was indeed a coward. What was he doing in the middle of the room, when he should be in bed with his wife?

Coming back to the current topic, he said:

"I think you were too young for me at that point."

"Ha! But I wasn't too young for you too ask me to be your mistress. Or let me marry Frank Kennedy.", she said cuttingly. Then she remembered that she didn't want him to run away again, and softly added "Come to bed, Rhett. My feet are cold."

Rhett got into bed and hugged her. "I don't think you're that cold, Scarlett."

"I'm not", she giggled. "I just want you here. Say I'm the most beautiful and smart woman you have ever seen."

"You certainly are."

"Say you love me desperately.", Scarlett giggled again, "Have you truly loved me for years, Rhett?"

"I did and I do. I loved you since I first saw you. You were so pretty and confident and truly the most adorable and charming young girl I had ever seen." He bend his head and kissed her hair. "How old were you, my dear?", he whispered.

Lulled by his words and by the hand that was slowly caressing her upper arm, Scarlett was almost purring again. "Sixteen", she said softly and without thinking.

"So I know how old you are now.", Rhett said in the most soothing tone.

Scarlett jumped from her place and her palm hit his chest. "You are more wicked than the devil, Rhett Butler. I don't know why I keep you around."

Rhett snickered and brought her back to his chest. "A secret for a secret, my love. I told you I don't give anything without expecting something back." And then, feeling generous: "I'll tell you another secret, too."

"Really, Rhett? Do tell." Scarlett lifted her face, her eyes glittering with curiosity.

"I think I wanted to marry you when I asked you to be my mistress. I wanted you so badly I couldn't understand myself at times. You weren't the only one living in confusion, my dear. And since I'm confessing all my sins, I should also tell you I thought about shooting Frank Kennedy when you were married to him. Especially when you were pregnant. I wanted you to have my babies and my babies only."

"Really Rhett? That's how much you loved me?" she asked excitedly. Rhett nodded, thinking that they truly deserved each other. Only a man so ruthless as him and a woman with such a twisted moral compass as Scarlett would be able to have this conversation.

Scarlett recovered first. "Oh, Rhett! That's terrible. You didn't though?"

Rhett sighted with some regret. "No, someone else got him."

Scarlett rubbed her body against his, and whispered: "Maybe you should start apologising for your many misdeeds, you know?"

"In what ways would you like me to apologise, my darling wife? Should I bring the whip for all our whipping needs? I do remember you threatening to whip me once. Maybe this is my lucky night?"

"Maybe later. Let's see if you can manage without.", Scarlett said. "Rhett, it's almost light outside.", she suddenly realised. "Everyone will be up soon."

"Go lock the door, then." Scarlett started to get up, but Rhett's hands stopped her. "Take your nightgown off, first."

The most delightful shiver went through Scarlett's body. How wonderful it was to have him look at her like this. She could live on the hunger in his eyes alone for the rest of her days, she thought. Still, she wasn't convinced.

"Come on Scarlett. Where is my courageous girl?"

"But, Rhett, it's light…"

"That didn't stop you yesterday, if I remember correctly."

"But I wasn't naked.", she groaned. He was going to remember her about that until his dying day. "Mammy will kill me if she catches me walking around naked."

"Mammy will never know.", he assured her and his hands were already on her naked calves, lifting the material.

"Oh, very well.", she acquiesced, and threw her nightgown over her head. She jumped from the bed, ran to lock the door and was back under the covers in seconds.

AN: I find it amazing how Scarlett glosses over her love for Ashley at the end of the book. Not that she loved him, but to dismiss an obsession of more than a decade so easily, that's something only her could do. It's so sad that she needed so many shocks to finally get there. I also think that such an opportunist as her would not have ignored Rhett's love declaration and would have tried to make him repeat it or discuss it somehow. Anyway, thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed it and don't take it too seriously.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Happy now?" she frowned at him.

Rhett lifted the covers and looked at his wife. "I'm sorry, Scarlett" he said, tracing the dark spots on her breast with his finger.

She looked down, not understanding for a moment. "It's nothing, Rhett. I don't mind them." And then looking at his naked chest where the imprint of nails was showing and at the gash on his cheek, she murmured:

"You don't look too well either."

"I liked it. You can do it again whenever you feel the need.", and seeing her bewildered eyes, he added: "I liked it Scarlett. How can you even doubt that? I'm all yours, my love, you can do whatever you want to me, in the bedroom and outside of it. But I trust that now when you know you love me, you won't shred me to pieces with those pointed claws of yours."

Scarlett looked at him and tried to say something. And she understood where the darkness in her came from. But how was she to explain to her husband how she had enjoyed him taking her like that. She was beyond embarrassed by how much she rejoiced in his hands holding hers above her head, his knee forcing her legs open, and him entering her in one swift move and her scratching at him and loving how he overpowered her. How she pretended, for a few minutes at least, to resist him, instinctively knowing it would enrage him further and make him take her harder. She had loved his forceful lovemaking just as much as she had loved him underneath her yesterday.

I am a heathen of the worst kind, Scarlett thought. Tears came to her eyes. Rhett took her in his arms, and started blabbering apology after apology, kissing her head and promising he would never do anything like that ever again. Scarlett, her face buried in his neck, started crying harder. She moaned something.

"What? What did you say?", Rhett asked, startled.

"I liked it too. What…whatever you did to me, whatever we did together.", Scarlett said, pushing her face in his shoulder, her whole body shaking with sobs. The shock of what they did hit her with the power of a tornado.

"I will certainly burn in Hell for this.", she moaned again.

Once the adrenaline and the anger that managed to sustain her through the last days passed she was left feeling as weak as a puppet. The realisation that she wanted to do those unspeakable things with him again and again was tearing her mind apart. It made her want to crawl under the covers and never come out again. But her greediness for him was even stronger. This need was different from all the other needs she had ever felt, for pretty clothes or money or other people's jealousy.

She wanted Rhett. The darkness in her could only be matched by his own. She wasn't ashamed of what she had done, she was ashamed because she knew she was going to do it again, and she realised that a milestone had been reached, one that she had tried to keep away by holding to the fantasy of Ashley, the last one between her childhood and the woman she was now.

Since she had know Rhett, she had always fought the pull he had on her. Why did she fight it? It felt only right to let go, as long as he was the one to throw her in the most pleasurable abyss and catch her again when she came back. And to know she had the same power over him made her feel responsible of something so important and grand, it was almost like she matured from a sixteen years old spoiled child to a grown-up woman in the course of one minute. All the fog from her dreams dissipated and she was standing here with the keys to a treasure so glorious as she had never imagined, but one she had been looking for all her life. She wanted to be good for him and to him. She wanted to be his. Knowing now that he was hers too, she understood that what they had was so different and so consuming, no amount of childhood teachings or social restraints were going to stop her from loving him, in the most biblical way.

Rhett's thoughts were running in another direction, a more lascivious one. She liked it, his mind was screaming again and again. My little hellcat of a wife was made for this. He had never felt more relieved than he was now.

"No, Scarlett, please, my beautiful baby, please don't cry. Can you look at me? Scarlett, look at me.", he begged her. "I'm your husband and I love you more than everything in the whole world. And you love me too, right? You said you did." Scarlett was looking at him underneath wet lashes. She nodded.

"There's nothing wrong with enjoying yourself when we're together. I love sleeping with you." It sounded a little crude, Rhett thought, but they were past that at the moment. " Do you know how happy it makes me to know you like being with me too? You're not going to burn in Hell for making at least one of your husbands happy, right?" Scarlett, who was wiping her nose on her hand, in the most indelicate way, gave an unconvinced groan.

"Scarlett, listen to me" he said reaching for the handkerchief that was on his nightstand and pushing it in her hands. "You're not like everyone else. You're a smart woman who has two prosperous businesses. You're not the type who lays on her back and bears it. It's my fault, I should have explained these things to you on our honeymoon.", and shown, he mentally added.

"But I wanted to be a lady, Rhett. I just realised I'll never be one. And I don't care about being a lady anymore, as long as we… Maybe I'm not better than one of your…"

"They're not mine.", he said quickly. "And you're a million times better, because you're my wife and we do these things out of love. Do you know I never slept with anyone else when I was lucky enough to share your bed? Only after you kicked me out I started…you know…", he couldn't even say it. "And most of the time I was at Belle's, I was usually driving her crazy with stories about you, and how much I wanted you to love me back, as much as I loved you."

"Really?", Scarlett sniffled. "Still, I don't want you to go back, ever again."

"I will not go back for that. I promised, didn't I? But Scarlett, I own half of that business. I've known Belle for more than twenty years."

"You own a…a place like that?", his wife asked. "Why am I not more surprised.", she said, rolling her eyes. "Rhett, can't you sell it? You don't need the money it makes anymore, do you?", and her face scrunched as she started calculating how much money the store and the mills were bringing in, and if she was able to keep the house running and the children clothed all by herself.

Rhett pushed her head against his chest, and told her to stop. "We have plenty of money, Scarlett. We always will. I'll always take care of you and Wade, and Ella and Bonnie. And the baby you promised earlier."

"I want you to sell it."

"I will. Happy now? Let's go to sleep, you can barely keep your eyes open."

He held her closer, but it wasn't enough for Scarlett. She climbed on top of him, stretching her naked body over his, pushing his chin with her head and hugging him fiercely.

"I want to sleep like this.", she mumbled.

"Sleep however you want baby. I'm not going anywhere.", Rhett answered, his fingers slipping through her hair and caressing her naked shoulder.

He couldn't sleep, not yet. He was going to go to Belle and apologise, write her a fat check for all the damage and sign the ownership of the house on her name. He was going to buy tickets for them and the children for the first boat to Europe. Scarlett would probably make a fuss about leaving so soon and with the children in tow, but he wouldn't be deterred in any way. He was going to remove them from this nest of vipers. Why did they come back after their honeymoon? He should have taken Scarlett to the farthest place on earth, away from Atlanta and Ashley and the old guard. And Belle, with all her nurturing ways, had been the only place where he could go to unleash the venom that was poisoning his heart, while hurting Scarlett more than he could image at the time. He would not do that anymore. He was going to stay as close to his wife as possible and talk to her without mocking, and their matrimonial bed was going to be the only place where they would fight for dominance. How sweet that would be. He fell asleep with images of Bonnie and her future little brother, frolicking around some picturesque village square in Switzerland.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

It was almost noon when Mammy knocked on the door. Everyone knew that Captain Butler had slept at home and, when Pork announced that his bedroom was empty and his horse was still in the stables, all the servants started shooting each other knowing looks.

Miss Scarlett was the heroine of Atlanta right now. Of course the story about Ashley had been almost forgotten, and the new escapades of the Butler family had set the town on fire. Everyone, from the lowest servants to the heads of the old families knew how courageous she had acted. A wife to step foot in a whorehouse, and bring back her philandering husband in the middle of the day! She must love him madly to do something so desperate. Of course, everyone had an idea about Captain's Butler involvement with that woman, but this had been the final proof. When the gentle ladies of the town had raised their hands in prayers at night, they mentioned the Captain's name, asking God to forgive his many sins and save his soul. It was a pity for such a fine gentleman and devoted father, with such nice children, not to be able to drag himself from the cauldron of hell of that bawdy house, and the clutches of a red haired creature who made husbands lose their minds.

Melly, had, of course, started doing her rounds early, and with all her sisterly devotion. With all those adorable children in tow, under the pretext of taking them to the park, she stopped to talk to every lady friend of hers, for they all seemed to roam the streets quite early that morning.

Blushing only slightly, she told them how proud she was of Scarlett, and how India's lies could finally be put to rest. And, under her gentle guidance, the married ladies of Atlanta, who all had their slight disappointments in the husband department, nodded and swore they could never, but how brave of Mrs. Butler for.

Meanwhile Rhett was entertaining himself by lounging in bed, smoking a cigar and slowly dragging the sheet away from his wife's white and naked bottom. Scarlett was sleeping on her stomach, her hair a mess and her little mouth drooling on the pillow. When he heard Mammy's knocks he hurriedly threw his robe on, covering his chest as much as possible and opened the door only slightly, a huge smile on his face.

Mammy humphed and asked directly if she should bring breakfast up, and then slightly moved her head to the right. Rhett's body turned slightly to the right too. Mammy said nothing and discreetly turned her head in the other direction. Rhett almost felt like blushing, thanked her profusely and closed the door, not without noticing the tiniest of smiles on the woman's lips.

He went straight for Scarlett's little toes, and almost dragged her out of bed and send her to the washroom. His wife, rubbing her eyes and mumbling curse words under her breath was almost there when she realised she was still naked and came back running for the nightgown discarded on the floor. Rhett went to his room to change and was back five minutes later, fixing his cravat, and bringing with him the tray that had been left outside by invisible hands.

Scarlett was brushing her hair and started complaining as soon as he came in that she had a million knots, and that Rhett should do it, for he was more patient and it was his fault anyway.

He sighted, but his wife's whining sounded like the voices of angels this morning. He dragged a small ottoman behind her and started his penance. Scarlett was smiling at him so prettily, it made him feel like he was the boy with the most presents on Christmas day. She took his free hand in hers and brought it to her lips, kissing his palm. Then she asked without looking too bothered about it:

"Rhett, what are we going to do?"

"About what, my beautiful kitten?"

"What do you mean? You do realise the whole town is talking about us. Not that I care too much, but still."

"I imagine that they all applaud you, my dear, for finally taking the reins and doing your wifely duty."

"You think so?", Scarlett asked, more than delighted. "Oh, Rhett, but I don't want anyone saying mean things about you."

"Well, I know what I'll do. I'll pretend I'm the most remorseful citizen Atlanta has ever seen, and look embarrassed and humble for a few days. I'll tip my hat in everyones direction, and smile politely and make pleasant and slightly awkward small talk while you stay right next to me with the most victorious grin on your face."

"I can certainly do that.", Scarlett smirked at him.

"Let's be grateful that this turn of events will erase your little rendezvous at the mills from everyone's mind.", he added and seeing her face fall, quickly hugged her.

"Scarlett, I'm not saying this to embarrass you. What I mean is that a man's indiscretions are easier to forget than a woman's."

She looked at him, not knowing if she should get angry. But she couldn't and anyway, she didn't want to.

"Don't be mean to me. I thought you believed me."

"I do believe you. I'm not mean, I'm just honest."

Scarlett turned to him with the most determined look on her face and threw her arms around his neck.

"I love you and only you. I don't want you to remind me of Ashley every time you feel like teasing me."

"I won't. I promise. I'll never mention his name again. Now be a good girl and let me finish, or I'll call Mammy to brush your hair, and she doesn't have my patience and my gentle touch."

When the Butlers finally got out of the house and started walking hand in hand towards the park, to bring their offsprings back, it was like the whole of Atlanta exhaled after having stopped for air the whole morning. But they looked happy enough and in one piece, and Captain Butler at least had the decency to appear a little out of sorts.

Melanie blushed explosively when she saw them, but managed to act as normally as she could under the circumstances. When Rhett decided to put the woman out of her misery and announced he was going to play with the children, she even managed to look him in the eye and thank him. Scarlett wasn't feeling better either. She wanted to apologise and explain to Melly everything, but didn't know how to start and what to say.

As he was walking away, Melly quickly grabbed Scarlett's hand and told her:

"I'm so proud of you, dear Scarlett. You are truly the most courageous person I have ever known. How smart of you to do that. No one is going to believe India's lies now. The whole town applauds you for it."

"Do they now?", Scarlett asked trying to sound indifferent but feeling quite proud. It felt nice for once to have people talk positively about her.

"Of course", Melly continued, the blush covering her face not showing any signs of abating, "I know you did it because you love him as desperately as he loves you. I always knew you were perfect for each other. "

"How…?", Scarlett started asking but stopped. What was the woman blabbering about? "I don't know Melly, maybe you should stop reading all those fancy books you keep reading.", Scarlett said, but her eyes were glittering happily, and she squeezed Melly's hand in return.

"Melly…", she then started her plea in the meekest tone, "I have to tell you…", but Melly grabbed her hand harder and shushed her.

"I'm not going to listen to you apologising for something you have no fault in.", and Scarlett's heart almost broke hearing her sister-in-law speak with such confidence.

"If only!", she thought.

Melly went on saying God knows what, but Scarlett wasn't listening to her anymore. A long line of people appeared in front of her eyes, people she had lied to, cheated on, stole from. Charles with his big, innocent eyes, Suellen with tears her pinched face, Frank, oh Frank, how she had used and abused Frank on every occasion. She looked at Melly, at her small determined face and tiny body in a decisive stance, going on about how everyone was jealous, and felt a shame so formidable she almost felt the need to crouch at the woman's feet.

But Melly, serene as always, hugged her and whispered in her ear: "There, there, Scarlett dearest. It will get better, you'll see. I'll make sure no one gossips about you anymore.", and Scarlett hugged her back and thought how Melly was more like Ellen than she had ever been.

The children were gathered under an old walnut tree, where Wade and Beau had found the dead body of a squirrel. They were all having different reactions to this discovery, each according to their personality. The boys, though they felt a little sad that a cute squirrel had died, were finding far more entertaining to push it with sticks towards Ella, who was crying and screaming. Bonnie was looking at the scene with some confusion, not knowing if she should join them or make a fuss like her sister. Rhett admonished the boys, who quickly apologised, and lifted Ella in his arms, shushing her. Bonnie quickly grabbed his leg and started wailing "Up, Daddy, up!" Rhett lifted her too, thinking for a second that he was getting old, and, abandoning all thoughts of playing anything, started walking back to his wife.

When Scarlett saw Ella red and teary, a quick look of irritation passed her face. But Rhett gave her a warning look, and she smiled and held her hands out for her ginger haired daughter. "Why not start today?", she thought, "I want to be a better mother, why not start right now?".

Ella went to her mother's arms and started her usual long line of questions: "Mother, there was a dead squirrel and the boys were mean, and mother, why was the squirrel dead? Do birds also die? Is Wade's dog going to die too? Do they all go to Heaven, with my Daddy?"

Bonnie looked at her sister for a second and decided she wanted to be in her mother's arms too.

"Mama hold Bonnie" she said.

"I can't hold you both, Bonnie darling. I'm not as strong as Daddy."

"Daddy strong.", Bonnie said with pride and kissed his cheek.

"Yes, baby. Daddy strong.", Scarlett sighted. "Is this how my life is going to be?", she thought. "Thank God for Mammy. And for Rhett. How did Mother do it all?"

She looked in Wade's direction and saw him lowering his eyes. She remembered Charles, maybe for the first time in her life, with some affection. She went to his side and grabbed his hand, noticing the surprised look he gave her. "Let's go home.", she sighted again. "I think we all had enough excitement for the day."

After supper, and after the children started their long and arduous climb tot the nursery, stoping on every step of the stairs to ask a question, complain about each other and remember something that needed to be discussed at that very moment, Scarlett, feeling an impressive headache coming her way went to relax by checking the ledgers and counting money.

Rhett came in and started moving aimlessly around the room.

"God's nightgown, Rhett. Stop fidgeting.", she said without looking at him. "You're worse than the children."

Rhett stopped. "I'm going out.", he announced.

Scarlett finally lifted her eyes, dangerously narrowed, and said: "No!". Remembering she wanted to be a sweet, dutiful wife, she started in a honeyed tone: "But, Rhett, who's going to make Bonnie fall asleep? You know you're the only one who can."

"You are, now that you've discovered among your many talents the one of being a mother. I have to go and talk to Belle about the ownership of the house." Apologise, set the bill and leave like the hounds of hell are at my heels, he mentally added. Only now he was going to run home, to his bewitching and simple at the same time wife. Let her throw at him whatever she wanted, he was hers and she was his and he didn't care anymore. He was going to mock her subtly and make her angry, because that simply couldn't be helped, and kiss her and make love to her until she forgave him again and again until his last day. And the thought of another baby, hopefully another girl, was making his heart flutter as if he was a young girl with her dance card full on her first ball. Poor Belle, he thought with some nostalgia, her job was done.

"You said you want me to sell it, right?", he said, managing with some effort to interrupt his own daydreaming .

"Oh yes, Rhett, I do. But can't you go like a normal person, during the day?"

"Would you like the circus to start anew? What would the good citizens of Atlanta believe if they saw my horse in front of her house during daytime?"

"They would probably feel sorry for me, again.", Scarlett said, undisturbed.

"I only need half an hour, my dear. And then I'll be home, under your thumb, for the rest of my life." Rhett was kneeling in front of her chair and taking her hands in his. Seeing him looking at her so starry eyed, Scarlett sighted and her mouth opened ready for the kiss that was going to follow…

"What? No, Rhett Butler, I'm not falling for your tricks again. Talk to your lawyers. Let them handle this."

"I will do that tomorrow. But I have some things that I need talk about with the woman, to make sure that everything will be handled with discretion.", Rhett lied smoothly, kissing her hands. "You don't want anymore gossip, do you now?"

Scarlett jumped from her chair at the thought. That was something she couldn't even imagine. For everyone to know what she did with her husband in a whorehouse…no, she never wanted to think about that ever again.

Rhett's hands went around her waist and pulled her to him. He started gently kissing her neck and slowly moving his palms up to her breasts. "I'll be home in less than half an hour, Scarlett. Maybe you could think of ways to reward me while I'm gone. I wouldn't mind finding you naked and cold and lonely in your big bed."

Scarlett slapped his hands away and started towards the door. "Ha! Dream on Captain Butler! You'll have to work hard to convince me tonight."

"I'm certainly dreaming. Bonnie needs at least an hour to fall asleep. I'll probably have to carry you snoring to our bedroom and do the job myself."

"Half an hour, Rhett.", Scarlett said, starting to climb the stairs. And then, looking back at his handsome face, she added lovingly : "Next time I'll shoot you, I promise."

Hours later, when only stifled moans and giggles could be heard from the biggest house on Peachtree street, Belle Watling was siting in her office with a glass of champagne. On the desk in front of her was a generous check with Rhett's firm signature underneath. The Butlers were going away, it seemed. Good for them, she thought. She was quite relieved to be free of Rhett's moods and the drama that was his marriage. Sure, she was always sad to see him go, but she had learned many years ago that he wasn't hers and her heart had healed in time.

When he entered her office tonight, trying hard to look remorseful, Belle had only waved her hand and accepted his apologies as nothing had happened, although half of her arm was blue because of Scarlett's riding crop. She could see he was jumpy and desperate to leave, so she graciously accepted the check and assured him she was going to meet with his lawyer to sign whatever papers they might give her. Maybe sending that anonymous note hadn't been such a bad idea.

She should leave too, she mused. Now that she was the sole owner of the business she could sell and move to New Orleans. She was tired of long nights and drunkards. Her son was growing so fast and she didn't want him to ruin his chances, considering he was doing well enough in school.

Belle sighted, thinking of the boy who wrote the note. Almost a year ago, this young, delicate young man entered her establishment looking for work as a piano player. He was the bastard son of a plantation owner, educated and polite to a fault. He was also suffering from consumption and all the doctors Belle brought in only gave him a few months to live. He was so grateful that Belle took care of him, he even started to help her with the books of the place, without anyone knowing. Belle could write, but not very well, so his help and gentle manners had been welcomed.

After putting Rhett to bed three nights ago, she asked him to write a note and Scarlett's name on the envelope. With the words trembling on her lips and nervous hands playing with the tassels of her dress, she told him to write: "Your husband loves you. He's at Belle's." The boy barely managed between coughing fits.

She had played with the note for hours, not knowing if she should send it or not. She was terrified to think of Rhett's reaction if he ever found out. In the end, she got dressed in old clothes and left at four in the morning to push the envelope under the door of the Butler residence. She never imagined Scarlett would come to her house, she just thought it would make her jealous enough or angry enough to do something, anything and try to fix her marriage.

Well, the poor boy was dying, it was only a matter of days now. Rhett and his tempestuous wife would be gone for at least eight months. No one would ever know of her involvement, Belle thought and lifted her glass to an imaginary partner. Maybe it had been for the best.

THE END

AN: If you've got this far, thank you for reading. I hope there aren't any glaring mistakes, or not a lot of them. This is the first time in years when I write something not boring and my first attempt at fanfiction, so I would love to hear what you think.


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